The present invention relates to disposable absorbent articles, and more particularly to disposable absorbent articles having dual elastic, liquid barrier containment flaps for improving waste containment.
Disposable absorbent products have been designed and used for various purposes. For example, some have been designed for use as diapers for babies, some as training pants for younger children generally between the age of 18 months to 36 months, and some as incontinence products for adults. One of the most important functions of any disposable absorbent product is the containment of liquid and other waste material. Failure to do so results in leakage and wetting of the clothes, both of which are highly undesirably to the wearers and caregivers.
Most of these disposable absorbent products are multi-layer designs having a liquid impermeable outer layer, a liquid permeable inner layer, and an absorbent therebetween. There may be additional components, such as containment flaps, additional layers of absorbent material, elastic materials, or the like. In many of these products, the sides or edges of some of the layers are coincident, and this can cause a problem in accurately registering or positioning other components relative to the coincident layers. This is due to the weaving of the layers as they proceed through the manufacturing process, and is generally termed "web weave." Other problems relating to this lack of web weave tolerance include inaccurate application of adhesive to or between layers or components, the necessity of applying excessive amounts of adhesive, or the like.
Ultimately, any one of these problems, or a combination, can cause undesired tearing or separation of layers or components in the products, increased cost in manufacture or materials, undesired exposure of layers or components, inferior waste containment, or the like. In view of this, it is apparent that there exists a need for improving waste containment.